MONTREAL – The Montreal Impact are now roster compliant.
Technical director Adam Braz confirmed Tuesday that Montreal were compliant with the MLS Roster Rules and Regulations after the signings of Didier Drogba and Johan Venegas forced the front office to free up a roster spot.
In the end, it was Jack McInerney who paid the price, as the Impact traded him to Columbus Crew SC for a second-round 2016 SuperDraft pick and other considerations. Braz wouldn’t comment on the details of the additional terms of the deal, only disclosing that they weren’t performance-based.
“We signed Didier,” Braz said. “That changed our landscape at the forward position. It affected how we looked at our squad. At that point, we reassessed things and looked at the make-up of our squad. Again, it's not easy. Jack’s a good kid, a good player. It’s never easy to let a player like that go.
“We looked at different options,” Braz continued. “In the end, we had to make a tough decision.”
McInerney provided details himself on Tuesday. With his contract up at the end of the season, McInerney had started talking with the Impact “months ago” about a new deal.
“It was just starting up, and then it kind of slowed down when the Drogba deal came,” McInerney said. “My agent was in New York City. He talked to the club on Saturday, and I was told that a player would need to be moved and there was a chance that it would be me.”
McInerney leaves Montreal having scored 11 goals in 43 MLS appearances, including 34 starts. In cup competitions, he scored seven goals in 11 games, but only five starts.
Asked if he’d been given a fair chance to succeed with the Impact, McInerney responded with a few doubts but repeated that he was willing to carry on in Montreal.
“I wouldn't say fair chance because I would say that, when I was on the field, I played really well at the beginning of the year,” McInerney said. “I may have not been scoring, but I was doing things that I don’t normally do well like hold up the ball. I created chances for other people. And I wasn’t always on the field after those games. I understood, and I was happy being here. But they thought otherwise, obviously.”
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Braz said he understood the player’s discontent.
“It’s always tough for a player when he’s not playing every game,” Braz said. “I totally understand what he means. Every player wants to play every game. … In the end, he contributed well to our roster.”
But McInerney, whose honesty with the media never diminished throughout his Montreal tenure, insisted that he’d always enjoyed a good relationship with his now-former head coach, Frank Klopas, quipping that reporters tended to “make [stuff] up.”
“Me and Frank got along perfectly fine,” McInerney said. “He called me yesterday as soon as he knew I was gone. We had a good relationship. Obviously, maybe the things that he thought he was doing on the field, maybe I didn’t agree with them, but we never got into any altercations or had any words for each other or anything.”
Klopas, for his part, lamented that the need to make a move resulted in the departure of a “fantastic” player. He wished McInerney the best, adding that he had a bright future.
“With a player like that, he’s still, regardless of the fact that he’s been in the league for a long time, a very young player,” Klopas said. “With any young player, consistency is something that he has to work on and get better, but there were very good moments. As a young player, you’re going to have very good moments, and moments that he has to improve on.”
